Like Life Itself
by NCIS Obsession
Summary: [RISE OF SKYWALKER SPOILERS] Rey senses a new presence in the Force after settling on Tatooine. It's not entirely Ben, and it's not entirely her. Can Ben come back to her? After all, their bond IS a power like life itself. Yet another fix-it fanfic because none of us are okay.


**[SPOILERS FOR THE RISE OF SKYWALKER]**

**Okay, I lied. I'm not done writing Star Wars fanfics. Apparently one fix-it fanfic wasn't enough, so here is a very similar one that came to me after watching TRoS again *sobs even more***

**-.-.-**

Shortly after settling on Tatooine, Rey felt it. Another presence in the Force. It felt like… him… but not entirely. It also felt like her.

At first, she attributed it to the fact that he had instilled all his Life Force in her to bring her back from the dead. Maybe he still lived within her, in each breath she took that should have been his, had he not made the ultimate sacrifice.

But as the weeks went on, she knew. This new presence had its own signature. It was unique. It had similarities to her and Ben, yes, but this was something entirely separate from them.

Sifting through the ancient Jedi texts confirmed what she was already beginning to believe: that somehow, the Force had ensured that its presence in the bloodline of the Skywalkers lived on.

It was a very rare event, for a child to be born of the Force in this way. The last known occurrence was Anakin Skywalker himself, Ben's grandfather.

As Rey read on, the texts noted that the act of giving up all of one's Life Force may have unexpected consequences beyond anything known to the Jedi. To their knowledge, it had never been done before. Before Ben.

It made sense, honestly. If the Force had gone through all that trouble to create Anakin Skywalker, shouldn't something be destined to come from it? Surely it had not intended for Anakin's bloodline to end with Ben Solo, who had been manipulated and abused for most of his life by Darth Sidious.

If that were true, what was the point of Leia's death? She had given everything she had left to bring her son back from the Dark Side. To give him a chance to redeem himself. And he had, albeit for only a short while.

Rey often marveled at his selflessness. She thought about those last few moments, the only ones they had together before his life was depleted and lost. After watching him fade away before her eyes, the only thing keeping her going was the hope that he would one day appear to her like Luke and sometimes Leia did.

Every day, she hoped. She waited. She searched for him.

And now, this new presence in the Force was obstructing her view. She would reach out to find him, and only find what he had unintentionally left behind. A child. Their child. A side effect of him healing her with all his Life Force.

Months passed with no sign of Ben. Rey began to settle into the abandoned home of Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, though it needed a lot of work. The blowing sands of the desert planet had buried much of the homestead, and what was beneath needed cleaning and repairing to get things up and running.

Thanks to the skills from her scavenging days, Rey was able to repair the moisture vaporators and get the power working again inside. It was a nice enough place to live. Much nicer than her home on Jakku, with a more affluent village nearby than she had had access to before.

After what had felt like nonstop danger and fear when she was fighting the First Order, she needed this time to reflect, away from all the things that reminded her of what had happened. Away from memories of _him_. His pain, his confusion, and his redemption. All of it.

She had enough reminders already without being constantly lauded as the hero of the Resistance. It was not only her who destroyed Palpatine and saved the galaxy from eternal oppression under the First Order. She had nearly been convinced to accept her fate and join the Sith, before Ben came running in to save her. He stopped her from being manipulated as he had been. And it was a debt she could never repay.

Everyone in the galaxy who might have believed in Kylo Ren's redemption was dead. Han, Leia, Luke… they would have welcomed him back with open arms just as Rey had. But Finn and Poe, along with the rest of the Resistance… too much damage had been done for them to be able to understand what had taken place.

It felt wrong, to go along with the story that everyone already believed. So as soon as the opportunity presented itself, she came here, to Tatooine. Only a select few knew her location now, and that was how she wanted it to be.

Each day, Rey meditated in the silence of her new home, hoping to find some trace of Ben in the Force. But no matter how much she concentrated, he was nowhere. She could no longer sense their connection, and it felt like a part of her was missing.

The life within her grew, though, and she clung to that life to keep her going. Soon it had been six months, and Rey's midsection had swollen significantly to accommodate the baby inside.

Just like every day, Rey began by meditating as she had been trained to do with Luke and later, Leia. Afterwards, she worked the moisture farm for as long as she was able, which was getting shorter and shorter as her pregnancy progressed. But it was enough to provide her with a comfortable lifestyle on her new home planet.

In the evenings she prepared a meal for herself and spent time readying a place for the baby to live when it arrived. She wondered what it would look like. Would he or she have dark hair like their father? Would their child have a smile as radiant and care-free as the one Ben flashed in his final moments? A heart like Ben Solo, uncorrupted by evil lies and manipulation?

These thoughts filled her mind when she was not occupied with her day to day activities. In those quiet moments of rest, she allowed herself to wonder what he would have been like as a father. What he would think now of bringing a child into this galaxy. Part Palpatine, part Skywalker. Part Solo.

She hated to admit it, but it was getting harder to do this alone. She was lonely. Sometimes she asked herself whether she would have taken on the name Skywalker if Ben was with her now. He would have offered her his hand again, and she would have taken it. They would have been together. Maybe then, she would have been Rey Solo instead.

Dreams often came at night as Rey slept. Usually they were just memories of the war. Very rarely, they were of him. It was almost like his absence from the Force blocked him out of her dreams as well. When he was there, he was distant. Unmoving. She could only see the shape of him, nothing more. It hurt.

Then one night, as Rey lay sleeping, she felt something move. Her eyes snapped open and she called out his name. A name she had refrained from uttering since she had arrived, the pain too much to bear.

"Ben?"

The word echoed almost impossibly long and she felt a chill of cool air blow past her. Her vision flashed to the cave on Ahkh To, to the glass that showed her reflection and echoed her voice in a way that was unnatural. She saw it again, in the glass: the shadow of Ben that she sometimes saw in her dreams. But as her vision returned to reality, he was nowhere to be seen.

Still, Rey felt it. The movement that had drawn her from her sleep. A movement within her.

She had never felt it move before, the baby, and as she sat there in her bed, she marveled at the sensation and what it meant. Everything was becoming very real. She was soon to have a child, yet she was all alone. The echo of his name still screamed in her ears as she settled back in her bed, her hands resting over her bump and her mind wandering to the cave.

It was just the remnants of a dream. A dream that felt very real, she told herself. She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm her pounding heart. In. Out. In. Out. In—

Her breath caught at the disturbance she suddenly felt in the Force. Through her eyelids, she could see a blinding blue light that faded as quick as it came. With a tiny shred of hope bubbling up inside her, she opened her eyes and propped herself up enough to take a glance around the room.

And there he was, blue light emanating from him as he looked down at his ethereal form, inspecting his hands and light-colored robes. He didn't seem to notice her at first, and Rey couldn't make her mouth from enough syllables to call out to him. All she could do was stare and pray that this was real.

At last, Ben looked around him to gauge his surroundings, his eyes taking in the darkly lit home before coming to rest upon hers.

"Rey," he breathed, immediately starting toward her with a sense of urgency. Like he might disappear at any moment.

Rey sat up just as he arrived beside her. Their eyes spoke volumes as they took in each other's appearances. Rey surveyed his new Force Ghost image, lacking the darkness and shadow of his appearance in life, while Ben's eyes were drawn to the rounded shape of Rey's abdomen beneath the thin blankets.

After a few moments of shocked silence, Ben spoke in that low, quiet voice that was so uniquely him. "Are you alright?"

Rey felt the tears welling in her eyes. What could she say to him? So many times, she imagined this moment. He would finally appear, and she could say all the things she wanted to say to him before he died. And now that the moment had arrived, she was speechless.

"I searched for you," she said, a soft sob escaping her lips. "Where were you?"

Ben's eyes similarly filled with tears as he drew nearer, trembling from a mixture of relief and sorrow. He had not wanted her to feel pain because of him. He had sacrificed himself so that she could live the full life she deserved. Not a half life on another sandy planet like Jakku, closed off from her friends and the rest of the world.

"I was somewhere dark. In between death and life, I think. It was like my soul could not move on, but I couldn't go back."

Rey cut him off. "How did you find me?"

The corners of Ben's mouth turned up in a tiny smile, one full of fondness and peace. "You called for me." He recalled the moment he had heard her voice echo through the void in which he was trapped. His name was a sweet melody on her lips that made him nearly burst with happiness.

Rey let the tears fall freely now. All this time, Ben had been lost, and all she needed to do to find him was call out to him.

"I couldn't feel you anymore," he added, "I lost all sense of time and direction. But then I heard you. I felt our connection, faint, but there. And I followed it to you."

Rey felt it too. Their bond had returned, though it was not as strong as before.

Suddenly, the baby moved again, and as it did, the strength of the bond flared. Ben must have felt it too, because his eyes darted back to the bump again, realization crossing his face. There was a third presence in the Force. Connected to both of them.

It didn't make any sense, but he knew the truth. He knew what had happened. Rey was carrying his child, formed by their combined Life Forces. They were a dyad. Two that became one.

Ben was at a loss for words.

Rey watched him in silence as he sat on the edge of her bed. Ever so slowly, he reached out and placed his hand on her rounded stomach.

The moment he made contact, the full weight of their connection swept over them like a tidal wave, returning in full force. Ben pulled his hand back instinctually and his questioning eyes snapped to Rey's. Once again, the power of the Force was flowing through them, in them, between them, just like it had before. It was overwhelming.

"Ben!" Rey called loudly, her attention locked on his fingers and hand, which were rapidly losing their blue glow. With each second that passed, more of him was materializing in front of her. The Force surged through him from head to toe, restoring his physical form.

Ben stood, a strange mixture of panic and excitement passing through him as he watched himself transform. He had no clue what was happening, but it felt as if everything was becoming right again.

Rey could do little more than stare at the sight before her. He was back, not just a ghost, but alive! Quickly, as if he may disappear again, Rey leapt to her feet and placed her hands on his shoulders, his arms, his chest, his face. He was real. Ben looked as shocked as she was.

"How is this possible?" she asked, joy seeping from her voice.

Ben looked down at her, searching her eyes for any information to explain what had happened. "I don't know," he answered. "Sidious said that our bond is a power like life itself… it must have brought me back."

At that, Rey grinned and threw herself into Ben's arms. He caught her, a matching smile adorning his face as she pressed against him.

"Don't leave me," Rey said, holding him tight and refusing to let go.

Ben nuzzled closer. "Never," he promised.

If one thing was certain in this crazy, confusing world, it was that Ben Solo would never leave Rey's side again. They were a dyad in the Force, fated to be together for all eternity. He would be there for her, and together they would raise their child. They would train a new generation of Gray Jedi, who care not for light or dark, only balance.

At last, the Skywalker line had fulfilled its destiny to bring balance to the Force. And standing with them, were all those who came before.

**-.-.-**

**I am not okay. Just when I feel like I can't love Ben Solo / Reylo any more than I already do, it gets worse and I go spiraling down a rabbit hole of sadness and anger and happiness and just a real messed up mix of emotions. Are any of us okay?**

**As always, drop a review if you enjoyed it. This is my second time writing for Star Wars, and its literally just fueled by passion at this point, very little actual thought is happening, so hopefully it makes sense ahah**

**Happy(?) New Year (almost) everyone!**

**If ya wanna follow my anguish over Ben Solo on Tumblr, that would be buy-me-some-popcorn. Maybe see some of you guys there. Thanks for reading!**

**~NCIS Obsession **

**(I'm real sorry, to my NCIS followers that don't care for Star Wars. I'm working on stuff, I promise!)**


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